RED CHAMBER
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to Red Chamber (I was crewing for Hard Rubber Orchestra), but I sent an emissary! And gave her my camera and a notebook for notes. So to Amanda Lowry, flutist and fellow composer/improvisor, many thanks.

A quartet of lovely Asian women, Red Chamber play traditional ethnic instruments, but often play non-traditional things. Much of their music is composed by Canadian contemporary composers, like Farshid Samandari (“Rays of Hope”), Moshe Danburg (“The Dark Red Ruby”), and members of the ensemble.
Highlights of the concert included a piece from 917 AD, for which the scores were locked up until very recently (“Crazy harmonics!” “Meditative” “the plucking style of rapidly alternating fingers was a very unique sound!”), the world premiere of Moshe Danburg’s “The Dark Red Ruby” (sounds less Chinese, with more influences from rock, parts are reminiscent of polka…), “Spring at the Heavenly Mountain” (from the 1970s, its melody is ancient, and the introduction pays tribute to the Persian origin of the Ud), “A Dream of Africa” by Vancouver composer John Oliver, which mixed African and Chinese cultures in an interesting way, and an arrangement of John Cage’s “3 Dances” for two prepared pianos, for which the performers prepared their instruments (“COOLEST. THING. EVER.”)

HARD RUBBER ORCHESTRA

I crewed for Hard Rubber Orchestra, and it was an adventure! The Waterloo Entertainment Centre is in its last stages, about to be torn down, and for good reason. There are 3 outlets for the entire stage. THREE. That’s it. And no lighting, so we had to bring some in, and yes, it blew fuses. Twice. We had to be careful after that, but with monitors and lights and all manner of other things to plug in, the stage was a giant, terrifying maze of extension cords and powerbars. I think Jeff was probably freaking out inside, but he hid it well.
I was less-than-excited about the show when I heard the band warming up, to be honest. Most of the stuff they warmed up with sounded like generic-modern-big-band music.
They opened with a bowed guitar + effects thing, which wasn’t what I expected at all–and exceeding my expectations proved to be a pattern for the rest of the concert. The music slipped seamlessly from Romantic to Latin to Swing to Ska to an insane violin concerto which Cameron the violinist wrote and played masterfully. “Madcap” is how it was described, and I can’t think of a better word. The musicians were all strong, the blend was good, and the solos were sizzling. The best part, though, was a freeform trombone solo. The four of them stood up, everyone else stopped playing, and they began doing lip slides and extended techniques and making this incredibly cloudy and complex little solo which made me sit up and listen. Gorgeous!
The ensemble, in my humble opinion, definitely lived up to their title (which I love) of “Godzilla of the Vancouver Jazz Scene.”

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